South for the Winter
by watchthesummersunrise
Summary: To be with Santana was to learn to be without her and Brittany was never very good at learning...
1. Tic Tacs in Autumn

Santana Lopez was the only person that showed up at Brittany S. Pierce's funeral. There were no flowers, no sermon, and absolutely no one else. Just Santana, staring at the cavernous hole in the ground in which the blonde had been buried. She sprinkled a handful of autumn leaves onto the casket, ten feet below her, and made a decision. She hopped into the ground, laid right next to Brittany and took ten sleeping pills.

"Sannn!" Brittany whispered, "What are you doing?"

Santana's eyes remained closed.

"Now we don't have any Tic Tacs left…" Brittany mumbled to herself. She pushed the leaves off of the rest of her body, sat up, and turned to the side to look down at her best friend. "You're supposed to avenge my death, San!"

Santana lazily opened her eyes, looking curiously at Brittany. "Britt, this story is so unrealistic. There would be, like, hundreds of people at your funeral and millions of flowers and I would NOT avenge your death."

"Why not?" Brittany asked, getting up and walking over to her script. She picked it up and rifled through the pages to see how far they had gotten into it this time. Brightly colored leaves still stuck to her clothes.

"Because." Santana said. "Then I would probably go to jail."

"So you would eat Tic Tacs and climb in my grave with me instead?" Brittany asked, scrunching up her nose. "That's gross _and_ creepy, San."

Santana stayed lying on the chilly grass, continuing to cover herself with leaves. "They're sleeping pills." She answered, wiggling her fingers at Brittany. "Help me with my grave, Britt".

"San, that's not how it goes, you're supposed to catch the guy who murdered me and then take him to the police so he can rot in jail."

"Yea…and what good would that do? You would still be dead." Santana looked up at Brittany.

The blonde sighed, letting go of her script and letting it float to the ground. "San, how am I ever gonna become a world-famous writer if you argue with all my stories?" Brittany sat back down next to Santana while the brunette proceeded to cover her lap with more leaves.

"You're only thirteen, Britt. You have lots of time…want some Tic Tacs?" Santana asked, shaking the almost empty container.

Brittany was distracted from her thoughts by the rattling of the only two Tic Tacs left. "Thanks," she said popping them into her mouth. "Minty."

Santana looked at Brittany, still arranging leaves along her lower half.

"What do you think the ending should be then?" Brittany asked

Santana paused. "Well, first of all, you would have never been murdered in the first place" she answered confidently.

Brittany raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.

"I would have kicked the dude in the balls before he got anywhere near you." She explained.

Brittany smiled. "But I was supposed to be walking home alone at night, and the killer came and killed me for my purse."

Santana rolled her eyes. "But, see, that would have never even happened because I would never let you walk home alone at night, duh."

Brittany looked over at her script, lying splayed out on the grass a few feet away. "San, you live in California and I live in Florida." Brittany said.

"That's another problem."

"Whyyyy." Brittana moaned

"Because." Santana said. "I would never live across the country from you."

"But we're not friends in the story."

"Another problem." Santana sat up and pulled a leaf out of her hair. "We're always gonna be friends, Britt."

"You're impossible." Brittany laughed. This wasn't the first time that Santana had stubbornly protested the ending of one of her stories.

"_You're _impossible." Santana stuck out her tongue at the blonde. "Why does one of us always have to die?"

"It's dramatic." Brittany stated.

"It's depressing." Santana remarked.

Brittany moved her foot, lightly kicking Santana in the shoe. "San, I need this story to be ready in a week. I want to submit it to the writing competition!"

"Then name the characters something elseeeee." Santana whined.

"Does it really bother you that much when one of us dies?" Brittany asked.

Santana nodded. "It's sad."

"Well duhhh." Brittany giggled, picking up a bright red leaf and placing it delicately on Santana's shoulder. "Sadness wins competitions."

"Can't you write a happy story where we, like, win a million dollars and fly off on a rainbow-pooping unicorn or something?"

Brittany huffed and stood up. "That's ridiculous."

Santana pouted before also slowly rising to her feet.

Brittany gave the now-empty Tic Tac container to Santana. "Would you really get in my grave with me and die, too?" Brittany asked, smiling at Santana and poking her in the side. "_That_ would be depressing."

The brunette shifted her feet and shrugged. "Life would be no fun without you." She reached out her hand and poked Brittany back.

From that moment forward, Brittany Susan Pierce stopped including death and sadness in all of her stories. She submitted a completely new story to the Lima Middle School writing competition and won second prize. It was about unicorns.


	2. Fears

Brittany S. Pierce never remembered how to tie her shoes. Not after kindergarten, not after third grade, and not even after seventh. Her mother would constantly try and help her daughter, telling and re-telling the tale of the two bunny ears, but Brittany never quite understood it enough.

"_Mom, doesn't the bunny get sad that his ears are all in knots?"_

"_No, sweetie, that's the way he likes them"_

"_But…" Brittany would always protest, "How does he hear? He likes being deaf? Does that mean he can't hear me sing to him? Or any songs at all!?" Brittany would always get upset at this point. She would cry and cry over how the bunny would never be able to hear and get even more sad that there was one bunny for each shoe. "They live right next door to each other but they can't even say hi!" She would sob._

_Eventually, Mrs. Pierce just got her Velcro shoes. _

"Britt!" Santana gasped, her arm snapping out to catch a pale elbow. She heard Brittany's breath catch in her throat.

"Whoa, San, you saved me…thanks!"

Santana nodded and looked down, ready to kick the stupid thing Brittany tripped over down the hall. Instead, she was met with bright blue and green laces, trailing and bunching around Brittany's feet as the blonde walked into art class ahead of her. "Britt!" Santana hissed, sliding into her seat next to Brittany's. "Since when do you wear lace-up shoes?"

Brittany was currently ignoring the teacher's opening words of instruction and running her fingers along all of the differently colored jars of paint in front of her. "Since I like them better than my stupid Velcro ones…" She shrugged. "Those are for little kids."

Santana looked underneath their table to the incredibly troublesome hazard that Brittany had chosen to wear to school today. She remembered way back in kindergarten when Brittany had first learned to fail at tying her own shoes, while Santana excelled. In fact, Santana excelled so much that she began tying all of the other children's shoes into knots for them…when they weren't looking. "Does your mom know you wore those today?"

Brittany nodded. "She's the one that tied them for me this morning. I bought them with the money I won from the writing competition."

Santana smiled despite her concern.

"Velcro is so 1989, San."

Santana just studied her friend carefully.

"Britt, how about at recess I'll teach you how to tie them, okay?"

"Not gonna work," Brittany mumbled, sticking her paintbrush into electric yellow paint and boldly smearing it across her paper. "Never works."

Santana huffed. She refused to let Brittany enter high school next year without knowing how to tie her shoes. They would, after all, be required to have gym class and Santana wanted to make sure Brittany didn't get laughed at. She would personally punch anyone who dared to do so anyway. "All Lima Heights…" She mumbled.

"What did you decide?" Brittany suddenly asked.

Santana looked at her blankly.

"For our project…?" Brittany asked, gesturing to the teacher and all the kids who now looked busy.

Santana guessed she had been too preoccupied by Brittany's shoes to actually listen. "Um…"

"We have to paint something that represents our greatest fear."

Santana's hand automatically reached for the black paint. "Oh…okay."

"Mine is sunburn." Brittany stated, continuing to glob yellow all over her paper. She turned to Santana. "Yours is spiders right?"

Santana stared at the black paint jar in her hand and smiled. "Well, yea, that's one of them."

"You weren't gonna do spiders?" Brittany asked, her messy yellow paint brush now paused, sitting still between her fingers. "I thought it was spiders," Brittany pouted. She was sure that she knew everything there was to know about Santana and was surprised and upset that she had not got it right.

"I hate spiders, Britt." Santana shivered in her seat. "But I hate darkness more."

"Oh!" Brittany's eyes lit up. She remembered now. "I remember." She went back to her yellow paint.

Santana began to delicately smudge some black at the very center of her paper, letting it seep and crawl out to the edges. It got bigger and bigger, making Santana feel a little bit uneasy. Her paint engulfed the whiteness of the paper just like actual darkness did.

Brittany's face scrunched up for a moment. With cautious movements she leaned over to Santana and whispered, "But San, I thought you weren't scared of the dark anymore because I got you that night light for Christmas in fifth grade…" Brittany made extra sure to whisper 'night light'. She knew how insecure Santana was about other people knowing that she slept with one.

Grateful for Brittany's secrecy, Santana replied in an equally hushed tone, "It broke last week, Britt."

Brittany frowned. "I have ten dollars left over from the writing competition…after buying these shoes." Brittany told Santana. "After school, wanna ask Rex to take us to the mall to get you a new one?"

Rex was Brittany's older brother and her only sibling. Standing at six foot four and already a junior in high school, Rex was Brittany's idol. It seemed to Santana that Rex could do no wrong in Brittany's eyes. Santana grew up thinking that Rex's name was actually Rex, when it really wasn't. His actual name was Pete but when Brittany was four, she had an intense infatuation with dinosaurs. Seeing as how Pete was already the tallest and coolest person Brittany knew, she began calling him Rex, short for , her favorite dinosaur. The nickname had eventually stuck and her brother hadn't minded. In fact, Santana was pretty sure that Pete genuinely liked it.

"He's going there to meet his girlfriend again anyway." Brittany told her.

Santana really could use another night light. She hated to admit it but the darkness petrified her. When she was in fifth grade, and her father decided that she was too old for night lights, she had almost had a panic attack. That first night she had called Brittany and insisted that Brittany stay on the phone with her until she fell asleep. "You won't tell anyone?" Santana whispered.

Brittany frowned at her and shook her head. "I would never tell anyone." Brittany said.

"Okay." Santana finally agreed, going back to her paper. She stared at the blackness for awhile.

"Done." Brittany announced not long after.

Santana looked over and witnessed the mess of hues that Brittany had created. There were spirals of orange, gashes of intense neon yellow, and somehow Brittany had managed to acquire gold glitter. "That the sun?" Santana asked, actually enjoying the assault on her senses that the image brought.

The blonde happily nodded.

"It's awesome, B." Santana admitted. "It's like I'm actually being blinded." She laughed.

Brittany grinned and recalled when her fear of the sun started. It was when they were ten years old and they had been invited to Quinn Fabray's beach-themed birthday party. Santana and Brittany had played on the beach for hours and hours, sneakily dodging any grownup that tried to interrupt their games with the application of sunblock. At the end of the day, both Brittany and Santana had returned to their awaiting mothers bright red and in more pain than they had ever thought possible from playing at the beach. The two of them spent the next few days in bed, slathered in aloe very. Only able to talk on the phone, Brittany had been miserable without Santana and when they would talk, sometimes Santana would cry over the phone because of how bad her burn hurt. Brittany, since that day, had been extra careful and afraid of the sun. She would always be afraid of anything that caused her or her best friend pain and made them have to spend time away from each other.

"How do you like mine?"

Brittany studied the darkness of Santana's painting. Hidden amongst the blackness there were deep purples and strikes of eerie blue. "Creepy." Brittany said.

Santana nodded. "Isn't it?"

"Hey," Brittany suddenly exclaimed, pointing back and forth between their paintings, "We're opposites." She observed, grinning widely.

Santana realized how right she was. "I'll give you my shade." Santana told her, tapping the back of Brittany's hand with her paintbrush, leaving a swirl of grey-black on her pale skin.

Brittany smiled and dipped her index finger carefully in the brightest mixture of yellow paint that she could find. Reaching over, she pressed her finger to Santana's painting, leaving an almost-glowing fingerprint against the shadowy background. "And I'll light up your dark."

They had no idea how right they were.


	3. I Let Him Kiss Me

"Get. OFF of her." Santana pushed Puck off of Brittany.

"Chill, Lopez," Puck tried to calm Santana down, "I was just trying to comfort her!"

Santana sneered at the smirk Puck had on his face. "She doesn't need comforting from that disgusting thing you keep in your pants." The brunette stood in front of Brittany, who was still crying.

Puck scowled at Santana but brushed off her insult. "Call me when you're sane." He told them and walked back to his lunch table.

"Britt," Santana slid into the empty seat next to the blonde, "Here's your chocolate milk. I'm sorry, I couldn't find any sprinkles to put in it." _I leave for one freakin' minute and that mohawked idiot is all over her. _

Brittany sniffled. "Charity really loved chocolate milk…" She said. Her watery eyes continued to spill tears that splashed into her mashed potatoes.

"I know she did, sweetie." Santana scooted closer to Brittany and rubbed small circles on the middle of her back. "Quinn." She whispered, across the table, while Brittany continued to cry. "Why didn't you pull him off of her?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Santana." Quinn was studying her eye makeup in a small mirror. "He was just being friendly."

Santana fumed at the way Quinn didn't seem to understand. "Quinn." She hissed. "She's vulnerable; we have to look out for her!"

Quinn just rolled her eyes. "It was just a ca-OW!"

Santana congratulated herself for kicking Quinn's shin fast enough to prevent Brittany from ever hearing the words that we about to tumble from Quinn's mouth. Charity had NOT been _just a cat_. Charity, to Brittany, had been everything.

"BITCH!" Quinn moaned.

Santana ignored her and turned to Brittany. "B, you gotta eat something."

"Charity liked to eat." Brittany cried.

"Because you made her the best meals." Santana soothed.

Brittany sniffled.

"How do you think she would feel if she knew that you weren't eating?" Santana asked in the quietest voice she had. "Mashed potatoes were her favorite…"

Brittany looked up at Santana. "That's true." She timidly reached forward and scooped up a sporkfull of the mashed potatoes, studying it.

"It's okay to be sad, Britt." Santana told her. "But now she's in a place where her liver doesn't hurt her—"

"It was her kidneys, San."

"Right, her kidneys." Santana corrected herself. "Anyway, now her kidneys don't hurt and she's probably really happy that she gets to drink all the chocolate milk in heaven."

"And pizza puffs."

"Those too." Santana nodded. It was true, she had actually seen Charity eat a pizza puff before.

"Are all her favorite things in heaven?" Brittany asked.

Santana opened her mouth to reply but then stalled. She wasn't actually sure if she herself believed in heaven enough to answer. "Um…" But, with one look at those devastatingly blue eyes, Santana fell apart. "Yea, B, all her favorite things."

This apparently was the right thing to say because Brittany's tears slowly stopped falling. "Mom said that Charity might be too busy watching TV in heaven to talk back to me anymore."

Santana nodded. "But you can still talk to her, even if she doesn't talk back anymore." She reassured.

By now, Quinn was staring across the lunch table at them but Santana couldn't care less.

"San, when I go to heaven, will all my favorite things be there?" Brittany asked.

"Charity, unicorns, cheese dip, leprechauns…everything." Santana told her. She smiled at the blonde, whose smile became bigger.

"And you?"

"Me what?"

"You'll be there?"

Santana nudged the chocolate milk closer to Brittany so the girl wouldn't forget to drink it. "I'll be there."

Brittany gripped onto Santana's upper arm. "I can't wait to go to heaven!"

Santana almost choked on the gum she had been chewing. "Uh, B, let's not plan on getting there for awhile though….like a long while." Santana said nervously.

"Oh, I know." Brittany said. She enthusiastically began stabbing peas and shuttling them into her mouth. "I want to stay here for another one hundred and fifty years, at least, so I can perfect my time machine."

"Totally." Santana added.

"You two are so strange." Quinn remarked. She slowly stood up from the table. "I'm going to the library for the rest of lunch and maybe to the nurse to get some ice" She glared at Santana. "I'm sorry about your cat Britt." She leaned down, gave Brittany a one-armed hug, and left the lunch room.

"Freshman year is rough so far." Santana said under her breath.

"Yea," Brittany agreed, "First the F on our science project and now this…"

Santana cringed, remembering the sickening crack of the egg that they were supposed to be keeping from breaking. It was the first F she had ever received. "Things can only go up."

Brittany looked at the ceiling, imagining Charity watching TV in the sky.

"Ready for gym, B?"

Brittany rubbed her stomach and slurped the rest of her chocolate milk. "We have to run laps today, I think, so I might puke my lunch up." She said like it would be the funniest thing in the world if that ended up happening.

Santana grimaced. "I'll tell Beiste that you're sick so you don't have to run." She offered.

Brittany shook her head. "No," She stood up with Santana, "Then I'll have to sit alone. I'd rather run with you."

The brunette threw Brittany's trash away for her and gave one last threatening glare to Noah Puckerman, who was eyeing them from across the lunch room. "Alright. But you have to promise me that if that dirt bag Puck gets that close to you ever again, you will let me go ALL Lima Heights."

Brittany sighed, tugging her best friend down the hallway away from the lunch room. "Stop the violence."

Santana looked behind her to make sure Puck wasn't trying to follow them out.

"Oh! San, I forgot to tell you, Mike Chang asked me out yesterday!" Brittany suddenly announced.

Santana almost dislocated her arm with how quickly she stopped, halting Brittany with her. "WHAT!?"

"I said no." Brittany added.

For some reason, Santana felt her stomach flip-flop. She couldn't say it was a pleasant feeling.

"But I let him kiss me cuz I felt bad because I'm in mourning and not ready to get married."

Santana's jaw almost hit the floor.

"His tongue tasted weird." Brittany pondered. She began to all but drag Santana down the hall with her.

"YOU WHAT?!"

"Shh, San," Brittany said, "Kids are studying."

"Who is Mike Chang!?" Santana asked. "And how can I kill him quietly?"

Brittany shook her head at Santana. "Don't worry San, his tongue tasted like the bottom of a shoe that a circus clown wore all day and forgot to wash his feet for a week before."

Santana didn't know what she felt more of: disgust, anger…confusion as to why she was feeling those things….

They had finally arrived at the side-by-side lockers that they would have for the next four years. Santana just stood in shock, watching Brittany happily open both their lockers for them.

"I bet your tongue would taste good," Brittany said, "like cotton candy and butterflies."

This was the very first time that Brittany S. Pierce said something that made Santana Lopez utterly speechless. But it would certainly not be the last.


	4. Grumpy Like You

Brittany had always been able to tell that Santana loved her. And even if Santana only said it once in awhile, Brittany always_ knew_. It was in the little things that she knew. The silent things and the hidden things. Love laced through the way Santana knew Brittany's school schedule by heart and pointed her in the right direction every morning. Love wove into their hooked pinkys. It pressed into the careful cursive letters that Santana used to scrawl Brittany's name on all of their passed notes. Love was as sincere and pink as the lip-shaped smudge of gloss at the end of each one of those notes. So, yes, Brittany had always been able to tell that Santana loved her, even if Santana only verbalized it once in awhile. Brittany, on the other hand, had always said it out loud.

"_Welcome to OHIO. I hate Lima beans." _

_Santana stared at the outstretched hand. "Um…"_

"_Brittany S. Pierce." _

_Santana still didn't know what to make of this. "…are you the…hall monitor?"_

_Brittany scrunched her face. "There's a hall monitor? Where?!"_

_Santana stood rooted in her spot by her cubby. "Who are you?"_

_Brittany, who was still looking around for this elusive 'hall monitor' creature, was confused. "Brittany…S. Pierce…I just said that." The new girl was a bit strange, she decided. _

_Santana, already the queen of eye-rolling at just eight years old, did just that. "I _know_ what your name is. But why are you talking to me?" She meant for it to sound tough, so no one would mess with her. After all, they were in an empty hallway, while everyone was out at recess._

"_OH!" Brittany said, liking this question. "Because."_

_Santana looked around, hoping someone would come save her from this…girl who confused her more with each passing second. "Because why?" Santana asked, noticing that the girl would think 'because' was a good enough answer unless she pressed further._

"_You're new, because that."_

_Santana just looked at her. "Why aren't you at recess like everyone else?"_

"_Why aren't _you_ at recess like everyone else?" Brittany asked back, giggling._

_Santana crossed her arms. "Because I just moved here yesterday and I don't have any friends to go out there with." She looked at her feet and shrugged._

"_Me too!" Brittany clapped. She bounced on her toes._

"_You just moved here too?" Santana asked and looked up at this strange blonde._

"_No, I don't have any friends either." Brittany announced like it didn't bother her at all._

_Santana studied her and after a moment discovered that Brittany, unlike most other children, didn't seem to have a problem with having no friends. "Oh…" Santana said slowly. She was unsure as to how to pursue this conversation. "Cool?"_

_Brittany broke into a wide grin. "Wanna be my very first friend?"_

_Santana cringed but there was something about the way this Brittany girl looked so hopeful and excited. And it wasn't like anyone else was making any offers of friendship. "Um…"_

"_Please with chocolate chip fudge brownies on top?" _

_Santana couldn't help but smile. "You're weird."_

"You're_ weird." Brittany said back, playfully poking Santana in the shoulder. _

"_So…are we friends?" Santana asked._

"_No." Brittany said, looking contemplative for a moment. _

"_What? Why not?" Santana said, suddenly offended at the rejection._

_Brittany just grinned at her. "Because I don't know your name, silly. If we're gonna be friends, I gotta at least know what to write on your invitation to my birthday party next week."_

"_Oh, okay…it's Santana." The brunette said. "Santana Lopez."_

"_C'mon, San, let's go to recess!" Brittany immediately exclaimed.._

_The next thing she knew, Santana was being pulled forward and Brittany was invading her personal space by linking their arms. _

"_I haven't been to recess in, like, a year." Brittany told her new friend, eager to finally have someone to spend it with. _

_Once they got outside, Santana could see that Brittany was literally buzzing with excitement. It looked like she was overwhelmed. "Wanna go…play on the monkey bars?"_

"_Those are my favorite!"_

_That was the very first day that Brittany and Santana had met and it was also the first day that Brittany had told Santana that she loved her. It had happened at the end of recess, after the girls had spent all of their time helping each other climb all over the playground equipment. Brittany had fallen and scraped her knee. It wasn't a bad scrape, but Santana had offered her own sweatshirt to wipe up the small drops of blood that fell. And Brittany had just said it. Santana had smiled._

"Whatcha thinkin bout?" Brittany slurred in a lazy southern accent, sliding up to Santana.

"Quinn has a boyfriend." Santana snapped.

Brittany, extremely used to Santana irrationally lashing out, didn't bat an eyelash at the girl's angry tone. She just waited for Santana to continue.

"It's like…what, the first week of January and she's already got a boyfriend?"

"Why is that bad?" Brittany asked.

"He's the second string quarterback on the junior varsity football team, B." Santana said, as if that would explain everything.

"Finn?" Brittany asked.

Santana nodded and rifled angrily though her locked for her math textbook. "He shoulda been mine." She said into her locker.

Brittany leaned against her own locker, exactly next to Santana's, and sighed. "San, you don't even like Finn. Actually, I think you hate him…"

Santana just growled. Brittany was right. She did hate Finn. He was just so…puffy. "But now that he's _her_ boyfriend, what am _I_ supposed to do?"

Brittany was mildly confused but she was used to Santana having different paths of logic than she did. "Uh…find another one?"

Santana rested her head against the cool red metal. "We have five more months of freshman year left. I have to watch them be all gross together for five more months. She's just rubbing it in my face."

"Quinn's not mean, San." Brittany reminded Santana.

"She's just conniving." Santana said.

"Con..ni..ving." Brittany sounded out, like she often did when a word that she didn't know was used.

Santana nodded. "She knew I wanted him."

"But you didn't wan—"

Santana held up her hand to stop Brittany. "That's not the point."

"I have baby apples for lunch today." Brittany announced, trying to take Santana's mind off the confusing situation that seemed to be making her angry.

Santana smiled. 'Baby apples' were cherries in Brittany's world. No matter what, Santana was never able to fully explain how that, if they both grew on trees and they both looked like each other, how they both weren't called 'apples'. "I love baby apples."

The blonde happily nodded. "I know you do, that's why I asked my mom to pack extra."

"We better watch out for your shirt this time." Santana laughed, poking Brittany in the chest. Last time they had eaten 'baby apples', Brittany had managed to dye her shirt almost completely red with the amount of juice that had dripped down her chin and onto her white shirt.

Brittany laughed. "That was funny, Rachel freaked out and thought I was bleeding."

Santana snorted. "And you let her escort you all the way to the nurse's office before you told her it was just fruit juice."

"She was being nice, San."

Santana shook her head, grinning at how sweet Brittany could be. She herself, would spare no one else's feelings if they got in her way. Well, except for maybe Brittany's.

"San, do you want to come over after school and help me pick out a new cat?" Brittany asked.

"A new cat?"

"Mom is taking me to the shelter!"

Santana frowned. "Sorry, B, I can't. I'm going to hang out during the boys' football practice and hunt for a better guy than Finn."

Brittany furrowed her brows. "But—"

"Sorry. Can't." Santana repeated "But I'll come over later tonight?" She couldn't stand seeing Brittany sad. It was like the girls face had been specifically designed never to frown.

Brittany shrugged. This was the very first time, in all the years that they had known each other, that Santana had willingly ditched Brittany. She didn't know how to feel about it, but it didn't feel good. "No, you don't have to." Brittany said.

"Britt—"

Brittany shook her head. "I'll be too busy with my new kitten anyway. I guess I'll see you…later then."

Santana watched, dumbstruck, as Brittany headed to her music class without another word. This was the very first time, in all the years that they had known each other, that Brittany had basically told Santana _not_ to come over.

It was that day, in front of the lockers, that Santana saw a flicker of something strange in Brittany's eyes. It was that day, that Brittany was first hurt by Santana.

Brittany didn't know why but it felt like something was changing. Sure, all Santana was doing was being creepy and stalking some boys to try and find a boyfriend, but Brittany didn't like how it made her feel and how it made her feel towards Santana.

Later that night, while Santana was finally home and doing some homework, she texted Brittany to see how the cat hunting had gone.

In her own house, only five minutes away, Brittany was cuddled around a massive fur ball. Lord Tubbington, she had named him. "Look Lord T, San texted me." Brittany held out the phone so that her new cat could read the screen if he wanted. "She asked me if I found a kitten."

Lord Tubbington purred.

Brittany had had her pick of cute fluffy kittens. She could have had her pick of any tiny animal in that shelter. But she ended up picking the only animal that "really needed her", as she had explained to her mom. She didn't tell anyone that she had picked the large kitty because he was grumpy, just like Santana often was. It just made her love him more.

Brittany didn't text Santana back that night.


	5. Climbing Through Windows

**Amazon Bard – thank you for my first ever review! I'm glad you liked it **

**groooviecat – thank you so much, here's another update!**

Quinn Fabray had a hard time not competing with Santana Lopez. It was like the brunette was constantly out to make her look inferior, so Quinn always had to be on top of her game. In order to be able to do this, Quinn had to use Santana's own personality against her. The only thing that Santana couldn't be was sweet. And that was something that Quinn was extremely good at, even if most of it was fake.

"Finn's such a gentlemen." Quinn told Santana at the lunch table.

Santana stabbed a baby carrot with unnecessary force. She was seated to the left of Quinn, with Brittany on the left of her.

"Did he wear a tuxedo?" Brittany asked, gaining strange looks from Quinn and the other five Cheerios seated around them.

"I meant that he was polite and, like, held the door open for me and stuff." Quinn answered.

While the rest of the Cheerios began badgering Quinn for questions, Brittany noticed that Santana looked grumpier than usual.

"Hey, San, guess what Lord Tubbington did yesterday." She didn't wait for Santana to respond. "He climbed out of my window and sat on the roof. I think that's where he likes to meet with his gang…"

Santana bit into another baby carrot.

"…I'm convinced that he's the leader. Otherwise why would all the cats come to _our_ roof, ya know? Mrs. Hendrick's roof is just as nice as ours but her cat, Mr. Whiskers, still comes over to ours. Lord Tubbington has some explaining to do." She told Santana.

The brunette, while listening to Brittany, was still keeping her right ear tuned into what was happening with Quinn. "Britt, I doubt that cat could even hoist himself up onto your bed, let alone out the window and up onto your roof…" She had seen Lord Tubbington since last week, when Brittany had first gotten him. It had taken Santana a bit of effort, because Brittany hadn't returned any of her text messages during the whole weekend. So, last Sunday, she had purposefully shown up at Brittany's house as a surprise.

"_San…what are you doing here?" Brittany asked._

"_B, I was worried. You…didn't return any of my texts…" Santana fiddled with the button on her coat._

"_Lord Tubbington stole it. He tried to call Arby's. He wanted curly fries."_

"_Lord…what?"Santana asked. _

"_He didn't know what cheese dip was at first though, but once I showed him, he at it all!"_

"_Who?" Santana asked again, wondering why there was suddenly someone strange in Brittany's life that stole her phone and liked cheese…_

_Brittany shrugged. "You would know if you came to the shelter with me on Friday."_

_Santana felt an odd blush climb into her cheeks. Why did she feel so bad about that? "B, I'm sorry…I told you, I had to—"_

"_It was nice of you to drop by Santana. But I have to go watch a movie with him now." Brittany casually shut the door in Santana's face. She wanted to make Santana feel just as bad as she had made her feel on Friday. _

"_WHO!?" Santana shouted at the closed door. Was there a dude in there? What was Brittany doing with him? What did the shelter have to do with this? _

_There was no answer from inside._

"_Britt, I'm cold!" Santana shouted. She shivered on the Pierce's front porch for another five minutes, expecting Brittany to let her in. However, the blonde didn't. Santana knew better than to try calling her again. Instead, she did the only other thing that she knew would work. Walking to the back yard, Santana shuffled around to one of the back windows. It was the one that she knew was constantly broken because Mr. Pierce always grumbled about how it let in a draft but didn't want to pay to actually get it fixed. Pushing the window open, Santana eventually was able to squirm her way inside. She landed, with a thud in Mr. Pierce's office. He was a contractor and Santana was careful not to mess any of his papers up while she brushed herself off and went to search for Brittany. _

"_We need to talk about the gang you've started." Brittany's voice carried down the stairs._

_Santana wondered who she was talking to. She hopped up the fifteen stairs and down the hallway to Brittany's room. But just as she was about to walk inside something came out. "AH!" Santana jumped at the rolling mass that appeared at her feet. _

"_AHH!" Brittany screamed at the intruder._

"_What IS that?" Santana said, leaping past the…thing…and into Brittany's room._

"_SAN!" Brittany exclaimed. "How did you get in here?!" Brittany sat on her bed, impressed with Santana's ability to teleport. _

"_The back window Britt." Santana told her, her eyes still trained on the doorway, through which the thing has disappeared. "Your dad should really pay to get that fixed."_

"_You…climbed through the window?" Brittany asked. She was even more impressed now._

"_Well…yea." Santana said, feeling oddly self-conscious again. Brittany probably thought she was creepy. "Are you…mad at me, B?"_

_Brittany studied Santana. She figured that she could just let all this unnecessary frustration go. She didn't like how it made her feel toward her best friend in the whole world. "I was…I'm just…busy."_

"_You shut the door in my face, Britt." Santana told her, still standing awkwardly in the middle of the blonde's bedroom._

"_He's a handful." Brittany felt bad for making excuses but she didn't really want to talk about the weird feelings that she was having. She didn't like anger and, if she didn't have to talk about it, that was better._

"_WHO?" Santana asked again. She wanted answers._

"_Lord Tubbington." Brittany answered. "My cat…"_

"_THAT was your new cat?" Santana's jaw dropped. "I thought you were going to get a kitten?!"_

_Brittany shook her head. "Lord Tubbington needed me."_

_Santana didn't know what to say. "Lord Tubbington." She said the name aloud._

"_He's a little…hefty." Brittany said carefully, keeping her voice down. "I don't think that he likes that about himself. But I love him anyway."_

_Santana raised an eyebrow at her friend._

"_No one wanted to pick him. He's a bit standoffish too. We'll work on it." She declared._

_Santana just nodded. She jumped when the thing…Lord Tubbington came padding back into Brittany's bedroom. He was holding some thin colored string between his teeth._

"_Aw, look, San!" Brittany clapped her hands. She scooped her cat off the floor and set him on the bed. "He wants to make friendship bracelets!"_

_Santana was sure the cat just wanted to play with the string but she wouldn't tell that to Brittany. _

"_Can you make them with us?" Brittany asked. "He doesn't have thumbs so you're gonna need to help him." Brittany told her._

_Santana sighed and took off her jacket. "I think a good five mile jog would help him right about now." _

_Brittany shot her a look. "He just needs time." She told Santana. "He needs to know how to be loved, and learn to be loved." She explained. "That's why I'm going to be the best friend ever." Brittany said, lovingly. _

"_But…"Santana paused. "I thought I was your best friend…?"  
_

"_You are." Brittany said. "But so is Lord Tubbington." _

_Santana now had another reason to scowl at the lardy blob of a cat. "You can't have _two_ best friends, Britt."_

"_Why not?" Brittany asked, measuring out some string. _

"_That just not how it…works." Santana said, sitting on Brittany's bed with the cat between them. She was hesitant to get too close to the feline. He looked dangerous. _

"_Well that's a stupid rule then." Brittany said, handing some string to Santana. "People can have as many best friends as they want." _

_Santana sighed. "Fine. But when I sleepover, he is NOT allowed on the bed." In the past years, Santana had actually liked Charity. She was a very calm cat and kept to herself. Santana sensed that would be a problem with Lord Tubbington, who was heavily purring while Brittany petted his head. _

"_San!"_

"_No." Santana said. _

_Brittany huffed. "Okay…but then you have to read him a bedtime story before we go to sleep. It's the least you can do for making him sleep on the floor." Brittany demanded._

_Santana grumbled. "I didn't like it when you didn't text me back, Britt." This had not been like the times when Brittany misplaced her phone and usually found it within the day. This had been two entire days that Santana had worried because Brittany wasn't texting her back.. _

_Brittany felt something in her chest tighten. "Sorry." She said._

_Santana looked away from Brittany. "Can I sleep over?" _

_Brittany bit her lip. She almost wanted to say something about how Santana should be over at Quinn's, talking about boys. But she didn't. She couldn't. "If you want."_

_Santana almost reeled back at what Brittany had just said. "Why wouldn't I want to, B?" Her eyes were wide, she couldn't believe that Brittany would think that. "I just asked…didn't I?"_

_The blonde shook off all of this weird tension. She couldn't do this anymore. "Of course you can, San!" She bounced off her bed._

_Santana wondered what was wrong. Brittany was pretending like the look she had had on a minute ago had never existed. Was something wrong? Why wasn't Brittany telling her? "Can we watch Fox and the Hound?" She asked, knowing that was Brittany's favorite movie of all time. It was secretly hers too._

_Brittany grabbed Santana's hand. "My mom and dad are at a conference in Omaha."_

"_Nebraska?" Santana asked as she followed Brittany down the stairs and into the kitchen, their hands still clasped._

"_Oh, that makes more sense." Brittany said._

_Santana didn't even want to know where Brittany had thought Omaha was. "When will they be back?"_

"_Tuesday."_

"_Britt!" Santana pulled Brittany to face her. "Why didn't you tell me you were home alone until then? You get scared!"_

_Brittany shrugged. "I _was _going to tell you…on Friday…"_

_Santana felt her heart sink. Brittany had been sitting alone in her house for the whole weekend and Santana didn't even know because she chose to go watch the football team instead of hang out with her best friend. "B, I am so so sorry."_

_Brittany felt herself being pulled into a sudden hug. She hugged Santana back enthusiastically. "It's okay, San." She squeezed Santana against her. She always seemed to give the best hugs. "Lord Tubbington was here."_

_Santana kept on hugging Brittany. Sure, it was way longer than she usually hugged anyone. And she never hugged anyone. But this was Brittany. And Santana couldn't stop herself even if she wanted to. "I'm going to stay with you until Tuesday, okay?"_

"_Really?!" Brittany asked._

"_I'll just call my mom in a few hours and tell her." Santana was used to Brittany's parents leaving for more than a few days for conferences. Brittany was capable of taking care of herself but Santana seemed to be the only one to know that Brittany was scared of being alone in the house. Santana's mom was used to letting Santana stay over for multiple nights and had been surprisingly supportive of her wish to keep Brittany company when her house was so empty._

"_Thanks, San!" Brittany cheered, letting Santana go. Her feelings from Friday had all disappeared. "You're the best!"_

"_I always stay with you Britt. Make sure to tell me next time, okay? Even if you have to tackle me and shout it in my face." She smiled at the blonde._

"_Okay." Brittany nodded._

_Internally, Santana promised herself that she would never ditch Brittany like that again. No matter what else was going on in her life._

After lunch, Santana and Brittany walked back to their lockers while Santana told Brittany all about the colorful bird she had seen that morning that made her think of her. Brittany's parents had come back on Tuesday and Santana had gone back to her own house. Now, Santana found herself missing Brittany at night. This was a bit of a new feeling but Santana just chalked it up to feeling guilty still about last Friday.

"So when you come over this Friday, want to make cookies and then go give them to the ducks?"

"B, it's still January." Santana told her.

"But ducks are _always_ hungry." Brittany said, waiting for Santana to finish getting things out of her locker.

"Party at my place this Friday," Noah Puckernan shouted down the hall, "Cheerios get V.I.P tickets to the party in my pants!"

"Gross." Everyone heard Quinn say from her own locker down the hallway.

"There's a separate party in his pants?" Brittany asked Santana, staring hard at Puck's pants as he was scolded by a nearby teacher.

Santana was quick to correct Brittany. "Britt! No, he means sex."

Brittany scrunched her face. "Oh."

"And I forbid you to ever go to that party in his pants. He's scum, Britt." Santana was aware the special attention Puck payed to her best friend.

"Okay." Brittany said happily. "That squirrel on his head scares me anyway. He should set it free. It must really want to find some nuts."

Santana almost choked on her gum with laughter. Sometimes, Brittany didn't even know that she was being funny. "Exactly, Britt." She smiled into Brittany's shoulder as she wrapped her arm around the blonde's shoulder and began to walk them to their shared English class.

"And you two will be my guests of honor." Puck said lewdly as they walked past. "Clothing is optional." He said to Brittany, causing Brittany to pull Santana tighter to her.

"Get a life, Puckerman." Santana said, pushing the boy away from them, but mostly away from Brittany. "She doesn't want you and your disgusting squirrel."

Brittany squealed with laughter as Puck just looked at them quizzically.

"We'll go to that party but make sure you do NOT follow him into his room." Santana told Brittany. This was only their second high school party and, last time, Santana caught Brittany before a jock had pulled her into a spare bedroom under the guise that he was going to show her his 'animal'.

"I'll only go into his bedroom if you go with me." Brittany said, proud of herself for knowing the proper safety measures.

Santana felt her stomach twist at her interpretation of Brittany's words. "Um…"

"But can we bake cookies and feed the ducks to?" Brittany asked, making sure their originally Friday plans weren't ruined.

"Yea, B." Santana told her, trying to ignore the mental image of what exactly she, Puck, and Brittany would do in a bedroom together. She cleared her throat.

"Friday is going to be so fun! Maybe that one guy will bring his animal again this time and I will actually get to see it!"

Santana spent the rest of their walk to class trying to explain to Brittany why that was not a good thing to wish for.


	6. Leaving You With Him

Santana hit the ground, hard.

"Ohmygod, Santana, we're so so sorry!"

"Get up, refugee!" Sue Sylvester's voice blared through the megaphone. "That was sub-par acrobatics. SUB-PAR!"

"San!" Brittany appeared at Santana's side.

"You okay?" Quinn whispered out of the corner of her mouth, unwilling to properly help Santana for fear of Sue seeing.

Brittany had been the only one to break formation.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." The brunette breathed. She lay clutching her right elbow. "You dropped me!" She seethed at the two Cheerios who had dropped her.

"Alright, Tina Taco can't seem to find her feet so we're taking five. Get some water in you, you dehydrated fools!" Sue stomped away to her office.

"What hurts, your arm?" Brittany carefully placed her fingertips on Santana's shoulder.

"You two are SO on my list!" Santana yelled after the two Cheerios.

"I'll take care of them." Quinn reassured Santana. They may not have been the best of friends but Quinn could NOT have her co-captain being dropped right before Winter competition.

Once everyone except Brittany had filtered away, Santana groaned. "Shit, my arm."

"Ice pack." Brittany said. She got up from the ground, preparing to go get Santana some ice for her arm, but a tan hand prevented her from doing so.

"Don't, B." Santana told the blonde. "I..I just need a second." She sat up.

Brittany sat back on the gymnasium floor, rubbing small circles into Santana's back. "You should really put some ice on it."

Santana shook her head. "I will later."

Brittany just stayed with the brunette until she saw a tear fall from the corner of Santana's eye. "Hey, what's wrong, does it hurt that bad?"

Santana, embarrassed by her single tear, swiped it away quickly. "No…but, Britt…I don't think I can do this."

Brittany's eyes widened. "Do what?"

"This routine, B." Santana slowly was helped to her feet, still cradling the elbow that had caught her fall. "I hate being the flyer."

"It's cuz you're so teeny." Brittany said. She was a fan of everything miniature. It had all started with Polly Pocket. "Pocket Santana."

Santana smiled at Brittany. "Sue is crazy. How does she expect me to do four forward flips in the air and then for those imbeciles to be able to catch me?!"

"I heard that next year she's going to work on a design to shoot someone out of a cannon."

Santana huffed. "Oh HELL no!"

Brittany smiled apologetically at her best friend. "Don't worry, San, Quinn will yell at them so they make sure to catch you from now on." She walked Santana over to the benches and gave her an ice pack despite the brunette not wanting one.

Santana wordlessly placed it on her arm.

"Just think, after practice we get to go get ready for Puck's party. Just focus on how much fun we're going to have!" Brittany encouraged. "I'll even let you drive."

Santana sucked in a breath. "Really?! I get to drive your car?"

Brittany nodded happily. She never understood why Santana loved driving her faded red clunker. She had gotten it from her grandpa. He had been sure that it didn't run anymore but Brittany had spent all her year's allowance on fixing it up, with help from her dad.

"I LOVE that car." Santana said wistfully, staring at the ceiling.

Brittany scrunched up her nose. "It smells like old potato chips."

Santana grinned. "But we look so cool driving in it!"

The blonde shrugged. She didn't get it. She would _much_ rather walk to Puck's party than have to show up in her beaten up car. It was her baby, but honestly, it was an eye sore. "You just like it because it makes people think you're really from Lima Heights Adjacent." She giggled and poked Santana in the cheek.

Santana rolled her eyes. "I AM from Lima Heights Adjacent. Just…on the _right_ side of the tracks…"

Brittany's further observations were interrupted by one Sue Sylvester scaring the bejeezus out of all of them with the help of _two_ megaphones.

"Alright, formation seventeen! Now you clowns! You think _this _is unpleasant? Try slipping on ice into a freezing vat of sewer water. THAT is unpleasant."

Quinn popped up behind Santana. "I took care of it, Santana." She nodded at Brittany. "They won't be dropping you again."

"They'd better not." Santana growled.

"Be nice, San." Brittany warned.

"But—"

"They apologized and they won't do it again. Right?" Brittany looked to the two Cheerios, who frantically nodded at her. "There, see?"

Santana grumbled, still shooting them death glares.

"Just think about old Red." Brittany whispered, right as Sue was counting down.

Santana took a deep breath and focused on the upcoming night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"They're all over each other."

"San, they're just holding hands." Brittany tried to get Santana to focus on not spilling liquor everywhere.

"He's probably going to suffocate her if they ever do have sex."

Brittany rolled her eyes. Santana had been non-stop talking about Finn and Quinn all night. It had gotten steadily worse as Santana had gotten drunk. Brittany was just thankful that she hadn't started crying or yelling yet.

"He's like a beluga whale. Or a tower of constipated cheese."

"What?" Brittany asked. Santana's insults were also getting more confusingly random.

"…baby tater tot face—"

"Ohkayy…" Brittany pulled Santana's cup out of her hand. "I think we've had enough."

"No!" Santana whined.

"Fine." Brittany agreed. "But this time, _I'm_ making your drink, not Puck." The blonde was sure that Puck had dumped at least a half-bottle of vodka into Santana's drink. This time, while hiding herself from Santana's view by turning her back, Brittany filled Santana's cup with plain blue kool-aid. She turned back around and squeezed a lemon slice into it for effect.

"Oooo, what is it?" Santana asked, gulping the liquid. "It's soooo good."

"Uh…it's called a mountain twister." Brittany made up a name on the spot, laughing to herself at how much Santana liked this 'new' concoction.

"You're a genius Britt."

Brittany just chuckled and pulled Santana towards the couch. Away from Finn and Quinn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Just let me…Britt…neee….get him!"

"San." Brittany clutched Santana closer to her. "Stay. Here."

"She's such a…show and tell." Santana sneered. She let Brittany hold her down.

"You mean a show off?" Brittany asked. She was currently seated on top of Santana for the sole purpose of stopping her fiery best friend from causing a fight with Quinn.

"Yeeaaa, that!" Santana nodded. She sighed.

"Quit squirming!"

"She's probably make him wait yearssss to touch her boob!" Santana argued with no one.

Brittany grunted, struggling to keep Santana down. By now they had drawn an audience of Jacob Ben Israel. Brittany wasn't even sure how he got invited to the party.

"Can I write about this for the front page on Monday?" Jacob asked Brittany.

"Write about what?" Brittany asked.

"Brittany S. Pierce, bull rider!" J.B.I shouted.

"NO." Brittany said firmly. "Your hair cloud is distracting me. Go away." She was too busy to deal with the infamous lie-telling reporter that was Jacob Ben Israel. And she did NOT want him referring to Santana as a bull. "She's just emotional right now."

J.B.I shrugged, finding an even better story when two Cheerios began making out with Puck in the corner.

"San, come on. I'm tipsy and you're not helping my dizziness. I feel like I'm in a tornado of sparkles."

Santana suddenly looked concerned. "You don't want to hang out with me, do you?!"

"Huh?"

"You wanna hang out with Quinn! She's blonde…she's smart, she's pretty. No, wait! Don' leave meeee!" Santana clung to Brittany's waist.

Brittany eventually got off Santana, tugged her to her feet with some effort and got the girl to stop crying and sit on the porch with her. She pushed a cup of water into Santana's hands, the 'mountain twister' long gone.

"Thith ith thooo gewd." Santana said, over the rim of the red solo cup.

"It's water." Brittany happily announced.

Santana sniffed it. "Gross."

Brittany narrowed her eyes at Santana. "Drink it."

The brunette just murmured incomprehensible words and drank the water.

"Feel better?" Brittany asked, once Santana had drained the cup.

"Have tuh pee. Why is she better than me?" Santana asked, looking at Brittany.

"Quinn's not better than you." Brittany answered truthfully. She knew no one better than Santana.

"She's got everything." Santana leaned against Brittany's shoulder. "Everything I don't have."

"You have popularity just like she does." Brittany told her carefully.

"But she rules the school…somehow."

"Everyone is scared of you." Brittany replied. "You…wanted that, right?"

Santana nodded.

"She's pretty and so are you. Even more so, I think." Brittany added.

Santana sharply inhaled. "You think I'm prettier than Quinn."

"I think you're gorgeous. You must have been a unicorn in a past life. I think I was a fairy…"

Santana snorted a laugh. "You're the best, B."

Brittany just shrugged. "You worry too much."

Santana hesitated. "You…worry less than anyone I've ever met."

"The world isn't as bad of a place as people think it is." Brittany mused, looking at the stars. "It's not worth it to get angry or frustrated."

"But it's healthy to have rage." Santana whispered into Brittany's shoulder. "I have lots of rage."

"I know you do." Brittany kissed Santana on the head. "And I love you just the same."

Santana sighed. "Will I remember this tomorrow morning?"

Brittany patted Santana's knee. "Probably not." She told her honestly. "We should probably get back inside. It's getting cold."

"We'll turn blue!" Santana said excitedly. "Just like Finn's balls…" She laughed to herself.

Brittany followed Santana inside, not knowing that Santana had just inadvertently formed the perfect plan and made a decision that would unfortunately affect everyone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Just gooo, B." Santana said, pushing Brittany's shoulders. "Let Quinn take you home. I can't drive."

Brittany rolled her eyes, something she rarely did. "I'm not leaving you here, San."

"You can sleep over." Puck said.

"My mom would kill me." Brittany told him.

"Britt, I'm leaving." Quinn said, still very sober. "You two coming?"

"I want to stay." Santana told them.

Finn had left with his other football buddies twenty minutes ago. Quinn had just stayed to make sure Santana and Brittany had a ride.

"You can't stay, San. Your parents…" Quinn said, trying to help Brittany tug Santana's arm.

"My mom thinks I'm staying at Britt's." Santana told them. She yanked her arm back. "I want to sleep over."

"She wants to sleep over." Puck slung his arm around Santana.

Brittany didn't like this. "San, you told me not to hang out with him…why are _you_ going to hang out with him?" She whispered to Santana so Puck couldn't hear.

"Trust me, B." Santana said, trying to push Brittany further away. "I'll be fine. I'll take old Red home in the morning."

"You heard her. Go home." Puck said.

Brittany wanted to kick him so hard. "San." She said, keeping her eye on Puck. "Please come home with me." Brittany was not above begging.

"I'm a big girl. I don't needs no baby sitter." Santana said to everyone.

Quinn looked between Santana, Puck, and Brittany. "What is she doing?" Quinn asked.

Brittany shrugged, helpless. This hadn't happened at the last party. At the last party, it was Santana pulling Brittany away from a creepy jock. But the difference then was that Brittany had no problem following Santana out of the house. "Puck, stop." She tried to shift Santana out of his grip.

"We don't need your help, Blondie." Puck told Brittany, curling his arm even tighter around Santana. "Unless you two want to join…" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Disgusting." Quinn said, pulling Brittany closer to her and away from Puck. Santana, however, looked happy underneath Puck's arm.

"Santana, you're still drunk." Quinn tried to reason.

"Quinn, Britt, go home. I know what I'm doing. I'll call you guys tomorrow." Santana said with surprising clarity.

"No!" Brittany was getting even more upset.

Quinn pulled her arm. "C'mon, Britt. Let me take you home."

"No, Quinn, I can't." Brittany began saying. Her words caught in her throat when she saw Santana turn and smash Puck's face into her own, initiating their first kiss.

"Looks like they're a bit busy." Quinn told Brittany, now more careful that the other blonde looked so bewildered at what they had just seen.

Brittany silently followed Quinn to her car, knowing that inside Puck's house, Santana would finally achieve the only thing that Quinn would not. And she could do nothing to stop it.

"It's not your fault, Britt." Quinn told her. "Puck has been trying to get in her pants since last weekend."

"WHAT?!" Brittany asked.

"He's been texting her for days now, trying to convince her. Looks like he finally succeeded."

"Santana knew?" Brittany asked, tearing up as she finally got in the car. She didn't want to leave Santana alone in there.

Quinn nodded. "She didn't tell you?" Quinn asked.

"NO. All she had said was for _me _to stay away from him…I…" was all Brittany was able to mutter out as a new rage grew inside of her. It was a type of feeling that she never before had felt. She didn't know who to be more furious at. Puck, for being such a slimy creep, or Santana, for not telling her what was really going on.

That night Santana Lopez completed her plan of achieving something that Quinn Fabray, captain of the Celibacy Club, could not, by giving her virginity to Noah Puckerman.

That night Quinn Fabray learned that Santana Lopez was a force to be reckoned with.

That night, something changed in Brittany. She had never experienced a feeling like this. So, she shoved it down deep inside of her and tried her best to focus on anything but happy things. She had never seen this side of Santana, but she knew that she didn't like it.


	7. Overstimulated

**Brittana will always be on.**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Brittany S. Pierce had always loved noise. The louder a place was, the more she seemed to like it. That's why she enjoyed cheerleading. That's why she liked football games. That's why she liked dancing. When things were loud, you could drown in them. And she thrived off of that.

To be fully immersed in something so loud that it made every other sense dull, well…that was just euphoric. She liked to feel the heartbeat of the bass against her sternum. She liked to get chills from the thunder from massive crowds. She liked to yell and be loud and not care.

To be fully immersed meant that nothing else mattered.

To be fully immersed meant to be free from care.

"Rex, where's the vacuum cleaner?" Brittany asked her older brother, who was leaning against the counter shoving a sandwich in his face.

He shrugged. "Why?"

"I need to vacuum." Brittany told him, darting to the bottom of the stairs. "MOM! Where's the vacuum cleaner?!"

"Brittany, honey, don't yell so loudly."

Brittany impatiently danced back and forth on her toes. She had only woken up ten minutes ago and was still in her pajamas. "It's not in the closet…"

"That's because I just vacuumed the whole house last night, while you were at the party…"

"Oh." Brittany said. "Well…um…I spilled chips. So I need to do it again."

Rex looked at her from his spot in the doorway to the kitchen, still chewing.

"Okay, it's in the living room." Her mom paused. "Oh and, Britt? Your father and I are taking your brother to go look at Ohio State, remember? We're staying overnight?"

"Oh yea." Brittany said. She had forgotten. Her brother had already gotten a football scholarship from three other schools, but he was still 'shopping' around, as her mother called it.

"So, we'll be back home tomorrow night, okay? You need me to get you anything? I left fifty dollars on the table for food."

"No, thanks. Bye, guys." Brittany waited until her parents were in the car and Rex was grabbing a bag of cookies for the road.

"You aren't gonna tell mom and dad that I slept over at Hannah's all last week, are you?"

Brittany shook her head. While he parents had been in Omaha, Rex had spent all of those days at his girlfriend, Hannah's apartment. She was a college freshman at Ohio State and Brittany guessed that was a big reason Rex wanted to go there so badly.

"Thanks, Britt."

Brittany just shrugged. She wouldn't tell, and he knew she wouldn't. Since they were little they had made a pact never to rat on each other unless they were in real danger. "Have fun." She told him.

"I'll bring you back a shirt or something."

"Mittens!" Brittany yelled after him as he shut the door. And suddenly, the house was even more silent than when she had first woken up. And Brittany's head was even louder. She needed it to stop.

Five minutes later and she had jammed headphones in her ears, turned the volume up to a cringe-worthy level, and had started vacuuming. She hadn't spilled chips. That was only a lie to get to use the vacuum. It was so loud that it shook Brittany's bones with its vibrations and filled the house and empty hallways with suction noise that, to Brittany, had kind of always felt so loud that it was calming.

Brittany was sure that she had vacuumed every single inch of her house. Finally, she had to abandon using the vacuum and put it back in the front closet, now only left with her music. For some reason everything was still deafeningly quiet. She hated it. She hated it today more than she had ever hated it. It was just…too much.

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"Britt?!" Santana winced at the noise from outside the front door. Were the Pierces having some sort of rave at eleven on a Saturday morning? "Hello?" Santana knocked five times, eventually figuring that, if she could hear all this noise from outside, then certainly no one would be able to hear her knock. So, she let herself in. Upon doing so, she reminded herself to tell Brittany that her family should really be more careful with locking the doors. This wasn't the first or even hundredth time that Santana would give this advice, but the Pierce's never listened.

Santana couldn't even hear her own footsteps over the chaos that was going on inside. What was making that ear-splitting noise?! "Brittany?!" Santana screamed it at the top of her lungs, clasping her hands over her ears. She stepped into the living room and saw something that made her eyes go wide.

There was Brittany, sitting in the middle of the living room. The television was on, on a channel that played only static. A bright blue boom box sat on the floor next to the blonde, playing some rap station at full volume. Then, Brittany's stereo system was playing some horrifying classical music. All together it created a lethal cocktail that made Santana want to tear her ears off. She jumped to the TV, then to the boom box, then to the radio, shutting everything off as quickly as possible. The Strange thing was that the whole time, Brittany just sat there, with her eyes closed. Like she was…enjoying it?

Brittany's eyes shot open when she realized everything had gone silent once again.

"Britt!" Santana yelled, a little louder than she had originally intended. It wasn't her fault, her ears were still ringing.

"_What?_" Brittany snapped.

Santana stood in the buzzing room, staring at her best friend. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. Like Brittany didn't want her to be there. "I…"

The blonde hadn't meant to snap like that. In fact, she was actually surprised by her own tone of voice. She had never spoken to Santana like that. Feeling self-conscious, she sprang to her feet but stayed a safe distance from the brunette.

"I brought back old Red." Santana looked anywhere but Brittany's face.

Brittany's teeth unclenched. "…oh."

"So…are you trying to go deaf or something?" Santana asked. She was close enough to the stereo to tap it lightly with her fingers.

Brittany looked from the stereo to Santana. "It was too quiet."

Santana studied the blonde carefully. "You'll hurt your ears."

_You hurt my feelings._ Brittany stayed quiet.

"Last night was…fun." Santana chose that as her ice-breaker.

Brittany felt an odd chill run over her arms, like those ants that swarm picnics. She hated those ants and she hated this chill. "I'm going to the park." Without a second glance back, Brittany walked straight out the door.

Santana stood frozen in the middle of the Pierce's living room. What was going on? She immediately was on Brittany's heels, following her down the street. _She didn't lock the door._ "Are you mad at me?" Santana asked. She was hesitant to ask the question because Brittany never got mad. Like, ever. The only time Santana had seen her remotely close to being mad was in the fourth grade when Finn Hudson had ripped the head off of the stuffed unicorn that she had brought for show and tell. Santana had taken care of him and Finn had come to school with sore feet the next day. Santana was good at stomping.

"Nope." Brittany said, a little too quickly. She just kept walking. She didn't know if she actually wanted Santana to follow her or not.

"Britt, stop." Santana finally caught up to Brittany and pulled her arm, causing the blonde to spin to a stop.

Brittany just looked at Santana. She didn't want to feel like this…she really didn't. So, she tried her best not to. Being mad…or sad…or _whatever _didn't feel good. "I'm fine, San." She shrugged, trying her best to brush it off. "I just wanted to go to the park."

"Can I…come with?" Santana felt stupid for asking.

The blonde nodded.

Santana wordlessly followed Brittany and they spent two hours silently taking turns and pushing each other on the swing before Santana followed Brittany back to her house where she couldn't hold it in any longer. She looked to Brittany in tears once they were in the Blonde's room. "Britt…I think I did something bad."

Brittany dropped Lord Tubbington, who she had scooped up, and was worried by Santana's sudden tears.

"I…"

Brittany waited for Santana to say it, like she didn't already know, but Santana just kept crying. So Brittany said it for her. "You slept with Puck."

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**Reviews are welcome and much appreciated! Let me know what you think and if I should continue!**


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